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Fury of Nature, of Ocean unleashed: earthquake and tsunami swallow entire cities and towns in Japan, decimating entire infrastructures at astonishing speed.

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Japan Declares Nuclear Emergency, As Cooling System Fails At Power Plant
Original post: Ominous flash from Kyodo Wire:

The operator of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant reported an abnormality Friday following a powerful earthquake which hit a wide area in northeastern Japan including Fukushima Prefecture, the industry ministry said. The system to cool reactor cores in case of emergency stopped at the No. 1 and No. 2 reactors of the plant operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co., it said.

Japan has declared a nuclear emergency. 2000 residents near the Fukushima Nuclear Plant have been urged to evacuate.  read more »

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Every second breath we take comes from the ocean. Every drop of water we drink connects us to Nature, especially the ocean.
The ocean is not just water, it’s alive, and it’s our life support system. Oceans provide more than half of the oxygen we breathe. Yet we do harm to our host; 90% of big fish are gone, 20% of coral reefs are gone...
Oceans cover 72% of earth and land covers 28% of earth -
12% of land is protected while less than 1% of oceans are protected...
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Science calls these animals Eubalaena glacialis, "good, or true, whale of the ice."
Brian Skerry (photographer): "When I was at the bottom at 70 feet, and here comes this bus swimming down. It came within inches. Here’s this softball-size whale eye looking at me. But then it stops - stops on a dime. It’s just hovering there, and literally one flick of its tail, and it would have crushed me like a bug. But it doesn’t. It was just highly curious."

Brian Skerry Interview  read more »

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The best Twitter has to offer from music to politics, sport to science.. Twitter has become the people's voice on the eve of its fifth birthday.

Blame Stephen Fry. In Twitter the preening polymath found his true calling, sending out an ever changing and oddly riveting mix of self-promotion and stream of consciousness as he tweeted his every thought and photo. His thoughts on Boyzone singer Stephen Gately, a picture of a parrot, a call for charity in Sri Lanka, Stephen in a balloon hat, all mixed in with his Wildean wit: "Streets of London fantastically full of young people. Either it's half-term or truancy in this country is running wildly out of control." Millions came to watch, millions more joined in. You may scoff but we are all Stephen Fry now.  read more »

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For Arkansas Blackbirds, the New Year Never Came

Times Square had the ball drop, and Brasstown, N.C., had its descending possum. But no place had a New Year’s Eve as unusual, or freakishly disturbing, as Beebe, Ark.

A worker with U.S. Environmental Services, a private contractor, picked up a dead bird on Saturday.

Around 11 that night, thousands of red-winged blackbirds began falling out of the sky over this small city about 35 miles northeast of Little Rock. They landed on roofs, roads, front lawns and backyards, turning the ground nearly black and terrifying anyone who happened to be outside.

"One of them almost hit my best friend in the head," said Christy Stephens, who was standing outside among the smoking crowd at a party. "We went inside after that."  read more »